


The feeling of second best

by Scottiedog17



Series: So what if I'm a female driver? I can keep up with the male drivers and maybe I can beat them. [3]
Category: Formula 1 RPF
Genre: Alternate Universe - Always a Different Sex, F/M, Light Angst
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-22
Updated: 2020-09-22
Packaged: 2021-03-08 02:27:28
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,888
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26598301
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Scottiedog17/pseuds/Scottiedog17
Summary: It’s funny, everyone thought Alex and Pierre didn’t get on. If only they knew, how close the pair really were.KeyPierre Gasly (Pierrette/Pierre)Lando Norris (Lando)George Russell (Georgia/Georgie)Lance Stroll (Lanie)
Relationships: Alexander Albon/Pierre Gasly
Series: So what if I'm a female driver? I can keep up with the male drivers and maybe I can beat them. [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1930183
Comments: 2
Kudos: 12





	The feeling of second best

**Author's Note:**

> Hello everyone, 
> 
> Here is the Alex and Pierre shot. It’s a bit more angst than I normally write but I thought it fitted best with the pair of them. Its inspired by both of their podiums from the last two weeks, and all the talk about red bull and just the genral vibe I get, after doing some research. There is also some lighter moments and some humour as I can’t seem to write stuff without it. Also, I had to include Horsey because although I’m not a cat person, all the Albon pets' photos on Instagram are really sweet. 
> 
> This is a work of fiction, separate from real life and should stay on AO3. 
> 
> Hope you all enjoy 
> 
> Scottie Dog 
> 
> xx

“Hey, you did really well. Your first podium. Yay"

Alex softly smiled as he heard Pierre’s voice after he answered his phone. 

"Thanks, sorry about your DNF. Where are you anyway?” 

Alex asked before he heard a sigh on the other side. 

“At the hotel. I didn’t want to stick around, risk the chance of having to talk to people. You know what I mean. Besides also didn’t want to have a run-in with Max, like we both know he’s an alright guy, but he is not somebody you want to cross paths with, if he’s angry, especially with DNFs.” 

This was very true, and even if she hasn’t said any names, everyone knew who Pierre meant. It, unfortunately, was just a thing that came with being a driver under the red bull and not being up to their standards, and she was subjected to it the most. It also made so much sense to why there was so much buzz surrounding her win at Monza, the previous week. She, after all, was the first female F1 driver to win a GP, as well, she was the first French driver to have won since 96, so no wonder it was massive in France. There wasn’t as much buzz surrounding his own podium, people would be saying it was a classic  Mercedes, Red bull podium but he wasn’t going to let that get to him. Georgie had raced over and given him a massive hug whilst Lando had done the same and had a massive smile on her face. Alex also knew his family would be crazy, and so would his fans from Thailand. That’s what mattered to him, that he was the first-ever Thai driver on the podium and people were celebrating. 

"Alex, you ok? You’ve gone a bit quiet.” 

He snapped out of his thoughts when he heard his girlfriend’s voice. 

"No, I’m alright, just thinking. I’m on my way to the hotel. Always thought it’s a slight powder keg with Red Bull and Alpha Tauri being in the same hotel.” 

This caused Pierre to laugh, 

"It’s all part of the Red Bull plan; they want to keep the 'junior’ team in check. It’s the same with Ferrari and Alfa Romeo, Charles and Antonio had a run-in once, they’ve never told me what happened.  Anyway, let me know when you’re in your hotel room, and we can reflect on our still crushed dreams.”

Pierre said before she hung up.

* * *

“ So, first of all, I believecongratulations are in order.”

Pierre smiled as Alex opened his hotel door before, she kissed him, causing Alex to laugh before wrapping his arms around her waist, pulling her close and kissing her back. The pair were not the type to make their relationship hugely noticeable, they held hands, but that was about it, but in hotel corridors, they didn’t care as much. Red bull and the media had for a long time always thought the pair didn’t like each other, Pierre bitter about being switched back to Torro Rosso. She was because who wouldn’t, but Alex had automatically been at her side, and she knew he wasn’t the one she should feel bitter towards. If anything, it had brought them closer, not driven them apart. They had only been together a year, but it honestly didn’t matter because now they were the only two people who understood each other truly.

Alex and Pierre would always be second drivers compared to Max Verstappen, it had been obvious with Pierre, and now it was beginning to show with Alex. Even if there were never any mentioned favourites, everyone knew that was a lie. Max was the golden driver who could do no wrong. One slip  up he made would result in an annoying comment in a  debrief. Alex or  Pierre made a slip-up, no matter how minor, their careers were on the line. Alex often hated to say it, but sometimes, he was a little jealous of Georgie and Lando. They were in teams who genuinely cared about their drivers which hurt sometimes; they didn’t have the overshadowing thought that their F1 futures were hanging in the balance. They both had confirmed F1 2021 seats with their present teams. 

Pierre felt; differently, her best mate was in somewhat of a different situation. Sure, Ferrari might have entered a bit of a downwards spirals, but they were  Ferrari, and it was possible they could become top tier again. So, no matter how often Charles complained, there was a possibility he could get a top tier car. He also was now basically the first diver as Seb was leaving and he had a confirmed seat for 2021. So, it was easy to see why Alex and Pierre clung to each other tightly, sharing in the same sinking, heartbreaking but undeniably real feeling that they were never going to be good enough. 

“Hey, I think we should go inside, don’t want to draw unnecessary attention to ourselves.”

Alex laughed as they broke apart before Pierre sighed following her boyfriend, closing the door behind her. It was also the first time he could see her properly, out of team gear, out of everything that showed they were part of a world, that wasn’t as perfect as it seemed to be when they were little kids. So, it explained why Alex was in a black t-shirt and sweatpants, his red bull shirt banished to the bottom of his suitcase, he’d placed the trophy in the wardrobe. 

Pierre was in  an oversized t-shirt and leggings, fluffy stripy socks that screamed F1 driver with her trainers. She'd also taken her hair out of its  ponytail, so it was now resting down her back.  Lando liked to call Pierre a Disney princess whenever she didn’t have her hair up. Wordlessly she kicked off her trainers and joined her  boyfriend on  the bed.  Successfully she moved , so she had curled into him, and his arm was around her, making her feel safe. 

The pair of them had done this many times before. Often after hold holding each other as one or perhaps both broke down, a comment in a debrief, an article or sometimes things said online getting to them. They knew it was dangerous to keep all those feelings in, that they could tear themselves apart from it but they couldn’t tell anyone. They couldn’t because nobody would understand, their families, their friends, their fans, nobody would understand the feeling of having your childhood dreams of being an F1 world champion being shattered, almost the minute you put on a Red Bull or Alpha Tauri race suit and climbed into that car. 

So, they kept these feelings inside and only allowed them out with each other, it was unhealthy, but they had no choice. Pierre bore a lot more because she was a woman, the media calling her Pierrette, making it appear her mistakes were down to her being a woman, it apparently had become more bearable as she’d gotten older. She also had a bigger network of fellow female drivers. Sure, there were only four of them, but it was better than none. Alex still knew that it sometimes got to her, and it was a  cliché, but he wanted to protect the woman he loved, and it was true 100%. 

It was different from the love that he felt for Georgie and Lando and the urge to protect them. It was likely down to the fact that they had grown up as kids. He’d only met Pierre properly as an adult, and that was different in terms of their relationship. 

However, tonight as he and Pierre lay there, it was quiet, no breaking down, no reassurance after a bad race,  no anger at something said, no feeling of being a  failure. No, it was a  weird, strange sense of quiet, both deep in their thoughts about the last two races, their performances and the ever-looming question of where they were going to be next year.  Both wanted to be there, wanted to prove to every single hater that they could do it, they could fight, get points, win races. Prove that red bull was more than just one driver, the others were just as strong, just as willing.

But both knew that whilst Max Verstappen was at Redbull, they would be pushed back, to the side, viewed as not being perfect. It was an unfortunate place, they found themselves in. They’d been desperate to take anything which would give them entry to Formula 1, the pinnacle of motorsports, not looking at the close details, the things that would never be in ads or promo videos. It was heart-breaking to think about, so they never dwelled on it, instead of separating themselves. Out there, they were Albon and Gasly, F1 drivers, but in the safety of this hotel room, they were just Alex and Pierre. Two ordinary 24-year olds deeply in love with each other.

“Have you ever thought about running away? Like we could totally leave and go live off-grid or somewhere?” 

Pierre softly murmured, clearly starting to fall asleep, curling further into Alex who was carefully running his fingers through her hair. 

“Say, if we were running away, where do you think we would be going?” 

“I don’t know, like the jungle, no that would be bad.” 

Alex laughed, Pierre was starting to drift, her sentences starting to make less sense, and her eyes also were starting to close. 

“Go to sleep; I promise we will continue our discussion about where we would run away to when you wake up.” 

“Promise?” 

“Promise.” 

Pierre giggled before letting her eyes close fully and were  asleep  fairly quickly after that, Alex could feel her chest rising up and down from where she was curled into him, she looked peaceful , like there wasn’t any thought plaguing her. Alex intended to keep it that way. This was done by him taking her phone which she’d placed on the bedside table and going to turn it off. 

He did give a small smile when he saw her lock screen, an embarrassing photo of her and Charles as teenagers at a club, both clearly drunk, laughing about something that the person taking the photo must have said.  Their arms thrown around each other. She said that it was one of her favourite photos. Herself and Charles just being regular teenagers, maybe a bit too drunk but just enjoying themselves and not having to worry about anything related to racing and their futures.

Alex proceeded to turn her phone off. He also went to turn his off, being greeted by an equally embarrassing lock screen photo. It was of himself, Lando and Georgie back from F2. They were all in their race suits with them tied at their waists, Alex was sitting on of the chairs in Georgie's driver’s room whilst Lando was holding a pair of scissors trying to get Georgie's ponytail away from her helmet. Georgie, of course, looked mortified, which made it even funnier. 

* * *

“Morning.” 

Alex groaned as he heard Pierre’s voice as he opened his eyes and saw her sitting on the bed, looking at him with a smile. 

“Morning to you as well.” 

He said also sitting up, stretching. 

“I’m just happy we don’t have to worry about racing for a week. Means that we can spend more time together, which is always a nice idea.” 

Alex then kissed Pierre wrapping his arms around her, pulling her close, enjoying their moment together before they heard a phone which was Pierre’s as she had beside her. 

“Hold on Alex, one second. Let me just get this”

Pierre smiled before she answered her phone, Alex expecting to understand what was going on, but Pierre had switched to French, the chances were it was  Charles or Lanie as he knew, they were the two that she often spoke to most in French.  Pierre often just spoke English and only seemed to switch into French when she was super happy or angry about something. 

This been proven recently as the whole grid had witnessed Pierre and Estaban getting into a shoving match, yelling at each other in French, Lanie, Charles and Nicky trying to calm them down. They were amongst the other drivers that spoke French as well, Lanie and Nicky’s being Canadian  French, but nobody was being that picky. The whole thing had resulted in Romain pulling the two drivers apart and yelling at both in angry French.

It was still a mystery to what had happened to cause them to go at each other's throats. It didn’t happen much, but it was obvious that they didn’t like each other at all. All Alex ever got in terms of an answer was Estaban had commented on being the better French driver out of the two as he hadn’t been demoted, Pierre had commented on how she had managed to stay in F1 whilst he had been forced out of his seat for a year. That was only a rumour, though, but everyone knew that they weren’t friends.

“Ok, well that wasn’t quite as bad, as I thought it would be” 

Pierre gave a small smile as she finished the call. 

“Who was it?” 

“Lanie, she tried calling last night, but I had my phone off, so she thought she’d try again. I texted her after the race, just asking if she was alright after her car caught fire. She is, and Nicky’s fine as well, after that crash.” 

Pierre informed him, before gently switching off her phone. 

“What did you think it would be?” 

“Charles doing something stupid, honestly I'm the one he calls every single time when he does something that could lead to trouble. It's because I'm the smart one in the friendship. I take it; you're that one in your friendship with Lando and Georgie.”

“Yep, every single time. It's been going on for years. Same with you and Charles?”

“Long as I can remember. But its weirdly nice in a way. Makes us like everyone else in 20s who are called upon when their friends do something stupid. Makes me forget, the whole other situation, I find myself in daily, but it's fine because I'm not doing it alone. Cause I have you and we can get through anything, they throw at us. Think how good we’d be on a team together.”

This caused Alex to smile at Pierre before the pair of them burst out laughing, it was the nice kind, the natural type, not the type that they were forced to do, during interviews or promo videos. 

“Ok, maybe on seconds thoughts. Not the best idea, what’s that saying? Don’t work with your significant other. Yeah, that might be better, don’t want to murder you accidentally.” 

Alex wrapped his arm around Pierre again, 

“I don’t see you being the type to murder.” 

“I’m stronger than I look, I can pack a punch. I train as much as you and the rest of the guys do. I’ve just got a naturally slimmer physique.” 

As if to prove her point, Alex got a punch to his arm, not a strong one but enough force to show that Pierre wasn’t joking about the fact she had the strength. 

“Ok, I take your point. Anyway, we should probably get going.” 

“Do we have to? I like just being here with you.” 

“I know so do I but we need to go.” 

“Ok, fine.” 

Pierre groaned again as she swung her legs off the side of the bed. 

* * *

“Ah Pierre, it's lovely to see you again. Well done on your win last week.” 

Alex could hear his mum talking to Pierre as she opened the door and pulled the girl into a hug. 

“Thanks, I hope I'm not being an unwelcomed guest.” 

“No of course not, your always very welcome here.” 

Alex made his way down the stairs to see Pierre standing in the hallway with her rucksack thrown over her shoulder, in a jumper and a pair of jeans. 

“Hi” 

She gave a smile as Alex pulled her into a tight hug. 

“Hey, so I see you took me up on the offer then?” 

“Of course, honestly the work needed on the house is worse than they thought. It’s the whole plumbing apparently. Could take weeks, so I decided to come over, well until we head off to Sochi. “ 

The two stood there for a while, just looking at each other before they were broken apart by a loud meow. 

“Oh, hello, Horsey. Didn’t see you there. Yes, you are my favourite member of this house. Yeah, more than my boyfriend.”

Pierre bent down so she could stroke the cat who had started purring, very happy to see a familiar face. 

_You sure you didn’t have anything to do with that photo?_

Alex laughed as he saw the message from Georgie and Lando later, asking about the recent Albon pets Instagram photo which featured an asleep Pierre on the couch and Horsey also asleep resting on her lap. 

_No, mum thought it was a good photo and then decided that it was also a good idea to put it on t_ _he_ _Instagram_ _account._


End file.
